I notice something about Africa that many people don't seem to. I suppose I simply have distinct tastes when it comes to a city's aesthetic appeal. Africa is one of my favorite continents out of the seven known continents, so I feel the need to state it explicitly. Given that I haven't had the chance to live among, learn about, and engage with those cultures, it is understandable that it cannot be exactly my best. Despite this, I adore and respect Africa, its people, its riches, and its culture. At least, what I've seen and learned. At the heart of the continent lies a city, dominant but quiet, many have called by Bekker, S. B., and Göran Therborn (70) a sleeping lion, the Nairobi City.
Nairobi City has come to light majorly because of political belligerence that the county, Kenya, has gone through in the past few years. History tells us that Kenya, the mother country of Nairobi City, got independence in 1963 from the York of the British colonial masters. The country has a bicameral approach to leadership with the first president being Jomo Kenyatta and the first prime minister being Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. Why do I find this information useful? Well, these two leaders were centrally involved in ensuring Nairobi becomes a capital city, and so it did. After independence, Kenya became a republic made of forty-two tribes.
The dominant tribes being Kikuyu, Luo, Kalenjin, and Luhyia. I use population size to rank the tribes, not their affinity to knowledge or any such factor. The country has many towns, but the major ones are Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu. I find Nairobi exceptionally interesting for many reasons.
When you get to Nairobi, the unique culture of the people suddenly catches your attention. In a city producing half the Gross Domestic Product for the country, one would expect a totally busy environment with no time for interaction with strangers. Well, turns out that assertion is untrue.
The kind of hospitality in the city can only be compared to the one shown to senior government officials here in the United States of America. One can successfully argue that it behooves citizens to be hospitable to their leaders, well, so what makes the Nairobi citizens, loosely called the Nairobians, to be that hospitable? Well, I will share that shortly.
The city's buildings show great affection to architecture and art in general. Standing at Upper hill, the high-end zone of the city, one can vividly observe the efforts put on erecting buildings which carry with them high ranking members of the society.
The Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC) is arguably the most noticeable in the city. KICC, as it is called, is the fifth tallest building in the city at 105meters and was designed by Architect Karl Henrick Nostvik. The building has thirty-two floors and is located along the Harambee Avenue, one of the main roads in the city.
Historically, Nairobi was inhabited by the Maasai community. If you asked any tourist at random about the Kenyan culture, there is almost a probability of one that the tourist will mention the word Maasai. These people have established, preserved and adored their culture fifty-five years down the independence line. When you get to Nairobi, there is a high possibility you will get to meet and interact with them. In their culture, the Maasai community is known for eating raw meat, drinking livestock blood and doing a traditional circumcision. They give Nairobi the original identity, and their culture plays a significant role in ensuring the city remains a tourist attraction cite.
Walking along the streets of Nairobi can surprise a stranger. The people are superfast; one is left baffled if there could be a possibility that everyone is late for work.
The shock may even grow bigger when you stand and watch the speed at midday when you expect everybody to have arrived at work. The speed at which people by-pass each other is, as some may argue, uncalled for. However, the Nairobians fathom so well the dangers of a large population and therefore use their pace to avoid the very evils they know of.
This is one weak pint about the city. A click of youths can spend an entire day on the street with only one intention, to snatch whatever they can and sell to the immediate buyer. This is not black market; it is something else. Economists are yet to come up with a name. It is said that these youths are so professional at the job of ‘stealth and still' that one cannot properly know when, where and how he or she lost an item.
Back to the hospitality of the Nairobi people, the question that many ask is, does it behoove them to be hospitable to strangers. Well, apparently the answer is yes and no. The good news with the people in the City is their strong belief in respect of everyone, whether a member or not.
The culture of respect has managed to sustain the country's capital from the pressure of political belligerence. In 2007 when the post-election violence war broke out, the City's citizens were least affected despite the fact that they were from different tribes. It is not uncommon to hear words such as "sorry, I'll pay for you" on the bus in case you have an insufficient fare. In as much as the city is under the capitalist approach of governance, giving a helping hand is one that comes almost naturally to the citizens.
The bad news, hospitality comes with costs. In as much as some members of the city offer to give directions for free, many still take advantage and charge strangers ‘small fee’ to show the places. This is not so strange though.
There are specific resources that make Nairobi City what it is. The most attractive sites include the Nairobi National Park, the National Museum, the Karen Blixen Museum and the Bomas of Kenya. When I look around Africa, I only match the resources to those found in South Africa’s Johannesburg, Egypt’s Cairo and Rwanda’s Kigali. The infrastructure within the Nairobi City is one that leaves more to desire as the city boasts of a high traffic jam.
On the one hand it could be caused by the high employment rate in the city and on the other hand, the jam could be as a result of the poor road conditions that lead to the city. However, walking along the streets of the city, one can notice a rather interesting trend. The roads are well labeled and are of similar design, all, or almost all, are two-lane roads.
The buildings adjacent to the roads are equally similar in design with most of the having small business shops for selling fast moving products. The hawkers in the streets, especially in the evening, also make it very unlikely that an individual without a proper map of the city would ever make his or her way out. It is for this very reason that the city has many taxis to carry you or me if you realize you have reached a dead end, to a given destination.
Unlike other major cities where workers reside within the residential area of the city, Nairobi city is unique. With a 50% GDP control, one expects that the city’s working population reside within, However, it is true that some workers commute from the neighboring counties of Kajiado, Machakos and Kiambu to work in the capital City of Kenya. The City has therefore had a large and unwavering economic impact on the other nearby towns with the construction of roads such as the famous Theca Super-Highway, a six-lane road which connects the City to Kiambu County’s Theca town.
In conclusion, Nairobi City is a great city with big, beautiful architecturally designed buildings that are not only attractive but also helpful in as far as mapping is concerned. The City's people, the greatest natural resource, is also a big boasting point since the citizens in the great City of Nairobi have an unmatched level of hospitality, one factor that has boosted tourism in the City from time immemorial.
The other resources such as natural parks are also a talking point when mentioning the city. In fact, one can witness one of the wonders of the world, “wildebeest migration” in the Maasai Mara national park which is not far off from Nairobi City.
Overall, I hold the view that if Nairobi can overcome some of the social problems such as crime, prostitution, and corruption, it can overturn the phrase of a sleeping lion and eventually be a lion, roaring for other African cities to follow.
Work Cited
Bekker, S. B., and Göran Therborn. Capital cities in Africa: power and powerlessness. HSRC Press, 2012.
